30 Rock: "The Funcooker" Review

Liz leaves no one in charge, hilarity ensues.

"The Funcooker" was a densely packed day-in-the-life story that involved, among other things, jury duty, experimental drugs, cursing on live TV and a tiny, waterproof microwave. Thursday's fantastic episode of 30 Rock brought it all together effortlessly. It never felt like a moment was wasted or that a scene was extraneous. This was a tight, smart and very funny episode.

Liz started the episode, and her day, with a fresh outlook. Her shopping spree at the Compartment Store gave her everything she would need to get her life back in order. It was a new beginning… until a bike messenger sent her crashing to the ground. "Or… maybe this is going to be the worst day ever," she quipped. And she was nearly right. Arriving at work brought multiple issues. Jenna and Tracy's stint as host of the St. Patrick's Day Parade was a hysterical set up for these two character's storylines. Jenna collapsed due to exhaustion, prompting Tracy to say, "Wake up, mother--." From here, Jenna found a way to continue working on TV while filming her movie, and Tracy discovered that you could say anything on live TV as long as you pay cash afterwards.

But Liz's biggest problem was finding out she had jury duty. The episode smartly recalled Liz returning to Illinois for jury duty and she opted to use the same tactics to get out of service this time. Added to her Princess Leia outfit was a stack of Playgirls from the early '80s. But what worked in Illinois doesn't cut it in the NYC, so Liz was stuck. Meanwhile, Jenna, Tracy and the entire "TGS" crew were left without their leader.

Jenna, thanks to Dr. Spaceman, found herself taking an experimental drug to keep her awake and alert at all times. This was the weakest of all the storylines crisscrossing in this episode. The best parts all involved Dr. Spaceman, though some of the jittery transitions with Jenna were chuckle worthy-- like seeing her guzzle her water like a rat from her bottle. Tracy's storyline was far more inspired. After paying off the FCC ("I guess FCC stands for Federal Bunch of Sticklers.") Tracy continued cursing and performing shocking acts on live TV simply because he had the money to pay off the fines. When Liz (during a break from jury duty) explained that his behavior was causing the show to lose advertisers, Tracy bought up the ad space. His 30-second commercials, which were mostly blabbing filler material, were perfectly Tracy.

While all this was taking place, Jack commandeered the writers to come up with a name for his new product: a miniature microwave. Apparently, "BiteNuker" was offensive to those who spoke French or Dutch. This was a fun storyline, mostly due to Jack's involvement. His anxiety over naming the product to appeal to the marketing holy trinity-- college students, the morbidly obese and homosexuals— was key to making the bit work. The best part came when Jack was fed up with poor ideas and opted to let fate decide. He chose to pull letters from a Scrabble game to name the microwave. First he got "V-A-G" but started over with "N-I." Not liking where those were going, he grabbed a handful and put them all on the table at once. It spelled "Hitler." Brilliant.

The storylines were certainly interesting and funny enough, but it was the way everything tied together with such ease that truly made this an outstanding episode. The bigger arcs gave way to great little jokes like Dr. Spaceman having a medical pamphlet about working on a TV show and filming a movie at the same time. Or Kenneth asking that all the menstruating women leave immediately after he was put in charge. And then, there was the crowning moment when, on live TV, Dr. Spaceman tried to force Jenna to sleep in order to save her life, so Tracy filled time by mooning everyone with his "Funcooker," hence putting Jack back to square one with trying to come up with a non-offensive name. There may be slightly funnier episodes of 30 Rock out there, but none can claim to be this funny and so brilliantly put together.